Hang tough on guns, Dems. It’s gonna get ugly.

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/09/hang-tough-on-guns-dems-its-gonna-get-ugly/


Hang tough on guns, Dems. It’s gonna get ugly.

Posted by Greg Sargent on January 9, 2013 at 2:42 pm


Two quick notes on what you should be watching for in the upcoming gun control fight.

1) Congressional Democrats are going to need a tremendous amount of outside backing from the left when this fight gets going. As Evan McMorris-Santoro notes, the coming gun battle has already produced one contentious town hall meeting held by a House Democrat in California, where gun control opponents gave him a real earful. As anyone familiar with the history of gun control well knows, one of the key advantages the gun “rights” side has is the speed and intensity of activism it’s able to mobilize against new gun regulations.

While it’s true that the NRA’s influence is often overstated, it’s also true that the NRA has a long history of skillfully mobilizing extreme constituent pressure on individual members of Congress at a moment’s notice, and making their lives pretty hellish in the process. So what we very well may see here is something akin to rerun of the 2009 health care town hall wars, only about guns — perhaps an even more emotional issue. So groups like the new one started by Gabrielle Giffords won’t be important just in trying to match the NRA’s donations to Congress; they’ll also be critical in determining whether Congressional Dems will be given support and reinforcements when the NRA-fomented pressure starts in earnest.

2) Joe Biden vowed today that the White House was prepared to use executive actions to push through gun law reforms without the cooperation of Congress. Biden didn’t tell us what those might be, but this is interesting, because it’s a reminder that a lot of the outcome here will turn on the legislative strategy the White House and Democrats settle on.

Along those lines, one idea that you may be hearing more about soon is the possibility of introducing separate gun control measures as individual bills, rather than as a whole package. Individual members of Congress have already introduced, or are planning to introduce, measures to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines (Dianne Feinstein), to close the gun show loophole and improve the background check system (Frank Lautenberg), and improving law enforcement’s ability to crack down on illegal gun trafficking (Kirsten Gillibrand).

It’s not impossible that the White House, when it releases its package of reforms, will opt to introduce such measures separately. The virtue of that is it makes it easier to highlight the popularity of individual measures (some of the above ideas have strong majority support) and harder to dismiss (unlike one massive legislative package) as a frightful Big Government usurpation of freedom. So keep an eye out for discussion of that.

All, in all, an epic battle lies ahead. Dems will need a lot of smarts, a lot of backbone, and a lot of outside support.

[tblue]

1. We HAVE TO HAVE TO HAVE TO have their backs!

and that means fight for them and send them money, and let them know that we are behind them. Also, call the idjits in Congress and tell them they are WRONG and why.

[eltopomaravilloso]

2. How would we effect confiscation?

I tend to think there would be a long grace period of about a year to turn in all handguns, then long prison terms for anyone caught with a gun or trading a handgun. I'm not sure how it would work.

[babylonsister]

6. We're not talking about "all" handguns, for starters. But

you'll hear about proposals ad nauseum, trust me!

[eltopomaravilloso]

7. You'll hear "all handguns" from me!

There is no reason for anyone other than police or military to possess a handgun of any sort, in my view.

[babylonsister]

9. I have friends who are responsible and

have them for protection. I have friends who hunt. I don't have a problem with responsible people.

[Recursion]

8. We don't. Currently legal guns aren't going anywhere

Both sides need to come to terms with that fact.

[hack89]

10. There will be no confiscation

none of the proposed bills call for confiscation. It is doubtful the federal government has that power.

[samsingh]

3. kick

[regjoe]

4. It is going to get REAL ugly

And millions of Dems are going to have to make a huge decision on where they stand.

[graham4anything]

5. With Mike Bloomberg financially supporting any anti-NRA, anti-gun candidate, it is easier now

and this is a long term fight that the gunnies will lose.

people used to smoke. now they don't.
one day in the next decade we will say people used to carry guns in the street. Now they don't

no matter how many new posters with less than 100 posts say or thinks they are acting concerned about.

the NRA is dead. They just do not know it yet.